Hispanic Heritage Month 2012

The lives of these Americans are worthy of celebration and further study, which our short profiles hope to encourage. The women and men included are writers, editors, journalists, publishers, trailblazers and change makers. They remind us of the rich contributions Latinos make and have made in the world of words.

This is by no means a definitive or exhaustive listing. It’s a starting point for learning, comment & discussion during Hispanic Heritage Month 2012 when our nation pays a little more attention to issues of diversity. Be heard. Tell us what you think & what we can learn!

Danny Villa is Vice President of Programming & Development for OWN: Oprah Winfrey Network, where he works with producers, agents and writers to oversee and develop nonfiction programming for the channel.Prior to joining OWN, Danny was Vice...more »

George de Lama was appointed External Relations Advisor at Inter-American Development Bank in August 2009. Prior to joining the IDB, he had a distinguished 30-year career at the Chicago Tribune, rising through the newsroom ranks as a reporter,...more »

Marie Arana is a former editor in chief of Book World at The Washington Post. Currently, she is a Writer at Large for The Post and a member of the Scholars Council at the Library of Congress. Arana is the author of a memoir about her bicultural...more »

Rosa María Santana joined the metro staff of The Plain Dealer in Cleveland in 1999. Soon after beginning her new job assignment at the newspaper, she received two first-place awards from the Texas Associated Press Managing Editors for her series, "...more »

Roberto Suro holds a joint appointment as a professor in the Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism and the School of Policy, Planning and Development at the University of Southern California. He is also director of the Tomás Rivera...more »

Antonio López is the author of The Media Ecosystem , and is a media educator and journalist who has written for Tricycle, Punk Planet, In These Times, High Times, The Brooklyn Rail, Reality Sandwich , and scores of other magazines,...more »

Juleyka Lantigua-Williams is a journalist, writer, editor, and college professor whose written and editorial work has appeared widely in newspapers, magazines and books in the United States and abroad. She earned a Masters in Journalism from Boston...more »

Oscar Garza is a News Editor at KPCC. Oscar is formerly Senior Editor at Los Angeles Public Media, which was founded to develop younger and more diverse audiences for public radio. He was previously Senior Editor/Content at the Los Angeles Daily...more »

Delilah Montoya is a photographic printmaker whose work has appeared in the journal Nueva Luz, the exhibition “Chicano Art: Resistance and Affirmation, 1965-1985,” and the magazine ArtNexus. The work resides in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art,...more »

Born in Havana, Cuba, José Julián Martí y Pérez was the son of poor Spanish immigrants. Thanks to the aid of his teacher, he was able to go to high school just at the time the Ten Years' War, Cuba's first struggle for independence, began. Martí...more »